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Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

New Member

I haven't updated my bio in a while, but I actually just selected helos our of primary. I have about a month and a half before I check in to my HT squadron and I'll be using a good amount of leave until then. I figured I could put together something useful to chairfly on, or at the least, have some fun with.

Well-Known Member

If you want to go down this path, I'd just get a nice stick and throttle, and maybe some pedals. If you have the time, there's some value to figuring out the peculiarities of why a helicopter is difficult to fly. Understanding those won't make it easy to fly initially, but at least in my experience, understanding the result of what each control input was doing, and also seeing how the other two controls also needed input afterwards, was valuable.

On my FAM 1, I wasn't trying to figure out what each control was doing, I was just trying to manage the ensuing chaos that resulted from my inputs.

But many have done well before you without such tools, so if you just want to enjoy your leave, you'll be fine. Just start reviewing the startup checklists, and don't ignore the "(C)" portions.

Cold War Relic

I haven't updated my bio in a while, but I actually just selected helos our of primary. I have about a month and a half before I check in to my HT squadron and I'll be using a good amount of leave until then. I figured I could put together something useful to chairfly on, or at the least, have some fun with.

Having spent over a dozen years instructing at South Field, I would suggest that you are better off saving your money. Learn every item on the preflight. Be able to diagram the fuel system and the electrical system from memory. Do blind cockpit drills. Learn how to program the KLN-900 GPS. Review your airspace and FAR's which everybody seems to forget from North Field to South Field. Good luck.

New Member

Ill be giving the pubs their due diligence, and will spend the time in the cockpit trainers to get my EPs and checklists down, but I still think a simulator would be a lot of fun and maybe really useful if I can load it on 3D google earth (corse rules).

Check out this video! From the looks of it, the equipment/software probably ran him 1.5k or so.

Active Member

Just my 2 cents. Sims are great, but you will get plenty of sim time in the HT's through the I3xx blocks and it actually counts towards something. Since you asked, I'd save that 1k for something else. You could take that money and use it when you wing to go out an get actual flight time, fixed or rotary. There will always be sim time, but nothing beats actual flying.

Well-Known Member

Ill be giving the pubs their due diligence, and will spend the time in the cockpit trainers to get my EPs and checklists down, but I still think a simulator would be a lot of fun and maybe really useful if I can load it on 3D google earth (corse rules).

Check out this video! From the looks of it, the equipment/software probably ran him 1.5k or so.

If you want to spend the $ because you like video games go nuts. If you're looking to invest $ towards your success in flight school don't bother. Certainly don't spend the money for the HTs. Quite frankly your chances of failing HTs are slim since you've already made it through VTs. Odds are you'll end up in some sort of H-60 in less than a year.

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998

The numbers are in your favor (about 1-2% attrition in HTs compared to 10~ish percent in primary) but also think of the deal kinda like, if you passed primary then you've proven your mettle to figure things out on your own when it's necessary. Once you're in HT advanced, then it's more productive for everybody when things are more "teaching" oriented.

That's not to say there isn't a lot of teaching in primary (because there actually is quite a lot), but a big part of success or failure there is sorta like, "All these other students figured out _____, therefore you should have been able to figure it out too." That screening has a purpose down the road. When someone doesn't fit the mold in primary and fails to meet the standard, then it's usually a sure sign that they are cut out for success elsewhere, somewhere other than in a naval cockpit.

If you want to buy a sim to have an awesome video game then have at it. Just don't get it with the idea that it's going to help you smoke the program in Advanced. You're gonna get 60s.